


Storybook Love

by kittydesade



Category: RED (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 00:56:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittydesade/pseuds/kittydesade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria needs a favor from Agent Cooper. To his surprise, he finds himself inclined to grant it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storybook Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lizzen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzen/gifts).



" _Come my love, I'll tell you a tale / of a boy and girl and their love story._ "  
\-- Willy deVille and Mark Knopfler, "Once Upon A Time... Storybook Love."

  
The woman in question was, admittedly, beautiful. She was fit, carried herself well, and had the features of grace and nobility one might imagine a queen to possess. Even dressed as she was today in relatively plain business attire, she turned heads and caught the attention of passers-by. Partly because half of them worked for the CIA and knew who she was, though.

"Agent Cooper. I need your help. Just a small favor."

Victoria said it with a smile, as though it _was_ just a small favor, to share a ride or borrow ten dollars for lunch. After his last experience with her and her friends he figured if that were the case he would be getting off incredibly lucky not to know what else would result from this supposedly inconsequential thing.

"You need a favor."

"Yes." Her smile broadened, and he wondered if her teeth really were getting pointed or if it was just his imagination. "You see, it's Ivan's birthday soon, and, well. What with one thing and another, and especially in light of the fact that he saved my life a few weeks ago, I would like to do something special for him."

Aw, shit.

He pointed a finger at her. "I am not helping you overthrow a small island country or start another international incident or... fill someone's floor tank with sharks..." All he could think of were James Bond movies. The bad ones. Victoria looked at him with tolerant amusement, clearly waiting.

"Are you done?"

Cooper shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah."

"You're on the right track, at least, I do want him to feel useful. You have a training exercise coming up, do you not? A rehearsal sort of a thing, for field agents?"

"How do you..." he started to ask, then changed his mind right as she started to give him that look. "Never mind, I don't want to know and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to. What about this training exercise?"

"I want you to put him in the exercise. Give him some sort of position, maybe the bagman, or the mark they're supposed to follow. Give him a way to put his skills to good use, make him feel useful, and teach the kiddies something they wouldn't learn from another field agent."

Cooper frowned more, but it wasn't half as bad an idea as he'd feared. They could learn something from dealing with a former Soviet agent, even if he wasn't as sure about the 'former' part as he wanted to be. Still, if he did use Ivan, it wasn't as though Ivan could learn much from the behavior of trainee field agents, and they wouldn't necessarily have to interact with him at all outside of the exercise.

She knew, of course, that he was thinking about doing it. That he had something in mind even if she didn't quite know what. "Excellent. Do let me know when and where to have him, and I'll deliver him up for you."

He didn't like the mental images that gave him. "Don't say that again. Please. And I haven't said yes, yet."

"But you will. It's not an unreasonable request, after all. I'm not asking for state secrets or live fire, just a little bit of ..." her hands fluttered by way of illustrating. "Hide and go seek."

"Hide and go seek," Cooper snorted. "They'll be complaining about this for years."

"It'll be good for them. Especially these days, the sorts of people you'll be sending them up against, they could use the practice." And that time there was no smile to her, face or voice.

He didn't have to wonder where she'd heard that; it was all over the news. Anarchists in Italy, terrorists in England. Terrorists right here at home. Anarchists over the internet, striking wherever and whenever they wanted. Cooper shook his head. "I'm still not sure sending them up against a restless Cold-War-era Soviet is the best idea," he pointed out. But she was right. He had decided.

He'd have to clear it with his bosses. Probably he'd get that achieved by not telling them why he was doing this or where he'd come up with the resource, just that it was a contact of his. If he had to cough up something he could claim Ivan as a CI who had helped him take down that terrorist cell that had kidnapped the VP. It was even true. Sort of.

"I have to ask," he said then, as she shouldered her purse again and got ready to go. "Why... would you even think of asking me this? It's a crazy idea, why would you..."

"For your wife's thirty fifth birthday, you arranged for a trip to her favorite summer camp, did you not? Horseback riding and a weekend of indoor camping and hiking, your parents looked after the children?"

Apart from the fact that she knew that, which made Cooper deeply uncomfortable, he didn't see the relevance. "That was a camping trip," he pointed out. "This is espionage."

"This is love, dear. Love wants its beloved to be happy, to do the things which make her happy and make her feel special, and loved. You paid attention to her because you love her, and you noticed that, perhaps when she talked of her childhood adventures she had a certain... well, a certain glow to her. And so, when you wanted to do something special for her..." She spread her hands as though the conclusion was self-evident.

And when she put it like that, yes, he could sort of make the leap from camping trips to war games and spy training. He was familiar with the nostalgia older and retired agents had for the old days, when they knew what was going on, when they were at their peak or prime or whatever they called it at the time. Hell, he'd listened to it often enough in the break room. Or on stakeout. Or from that batty old archivist who looked like he should have died years ago and was only still moving out of stubbornness and glee at his job.

And, now that he thought about it, yes. He could grudgingly amid that it was sort of romantic that she would go out of her way to arrange a harmless (he hoped) exercise for her lover to feel relevant or useful or whatever it was again.

He just didn't want to think about it too hard.

"All right," he sighed. "I'll talk to my bosses and get it arranged. Where can I..."

She waved a hand. "Oh, I'm sure they have my numbers. At least one of them is listening on the other end of my phone."

That was true. He'd have to tell them she knew about that. "Okay. I'll call you in a couple of days."

"Thank you, Agent Cooper." Victoria smiled, and for just a second there even he could admit that his heart clenched in his chest, and if she smiled at Ivan the way she was smiling at him now, no wonder the psychotic old Russian was still head over heels in love with her. "Say hello to your wife for me."

"Of course I won't." He showed her some teeth, then turned and walked away, muttering to himself.


End file.
